Monday, 11 April 2016

Terrorist Linked To Mumbai Attacks 'Slip' Into Europe: Report

Updated: April 11, 2016 02:25 IST

Mumbai: A
Pakistani bomb-making expert linked to the 2008 Mumbai attack is among
scores of trained terrorists who slipped into the EU posing as refugees
to join the ISIS's plot to commit atrocities in Europe, a media report
in London said on Sunday.

Muhammad Usman Ghani, who is linked to the Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) and
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terror groups, is being held in Austria on charges of
participating in a terrorist organisation, The Sunday Times said.

The ISIS "strike team" sent to Europe before last November's Paris attacks included Usman, the veteran bomb-maker from Pakistan.

LeT was behind the Mumbai attack that left 166 people dead.

The
disclosure come from sources close to a multinational investigation who
warn more "large-scale" assaults on European countries, including
Britain, are "imminent". Dozens of the ISIS operatives are still at
large, the report said.

Usman, 34, and a suspected Algerian ISIS fighter named as Adel Haddadi,
28, have been questioned by Austrian and French authorities after being
linked to the terrorist gang that killed 130 people in Paris last
November.

Investigators believe both men are part of an unknown number of Isis
"strike teams" that used the migrant flow to infiltrate Europe last
year. A network of jihadists based on the Continent has provided
extensive logistic support, from fake identity documents to safe houses.

Usman and Haddadi arrived on the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on
the same boat as two of the Paris suicide bombers, known only by the
fake names Ahmad al- Mohammed and Mohammad al-Mahmod. The pair blew
themselves up in front of the Stade de France stadium on November 13.

All four men had obtained Syrian passports and travelled on a boat carrying 198 people, according to a Greek police report.

Adel Haddadi has been linked to the Paris attacks Usman and Haddadi were
travelling under the names Faycal Alaifan and Fozi Brahi.

They were arrested by Greek police soon after arriving because their
documents showed up on the EU's database of nearly 4,000 passports that
had been stolen by ISIS.

Greek police released both men on October 28 and allowed them to continue the journey across Europe.

Shortly after the Paris attacks, Usman and Haddadi resurfaced in
Austria, applying for asylum at the Asfinag refugee shelter, near
Salzburg, in late November.

Local police then arrested the men on December 10 when a fingerprint search linked them to the passports commandeered by ISIS.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the arrests in Greece had
prevented them from joining the Paris attackers, or whether they were
planning a separate assault.

An examination of phones in their possession in Austria revealed that
the suspects had dialled numbers used by their suicide bomber travelling
companions, as well as associates of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected
ringleader of the terrorist cell behind the attacks.

Abaaoud, who was killed in Paris in a shootout with police on November
18, boasted to an associate he and another 90 fighters had slipped into
Europe as refugees, according to French investigators.

While in detention in Austria, Usman and Haddadi have been questioned by
members of the DGSI, France's internal security service - the
equivalent of MI5.

Both men are expected to be extradited to France to stand trial on
charges relating to the Paris attacks. They are denying the charges.